Cooking Cheap

Here we go again. This time it’s a single stage, firm preferment. What’s that?

1.5 oz W. 3.0 oz of BF + 1/2 Tbl of half awake starter. I want 20% of my final 24 oz. I’t’s very firm (dry) but given time, the starter will eat it and make more starter. Six hours in and it is doing something. I’ll give it at least that many hours. It’s cool tonight down around 70 inside and headed for mid 50’s. No hurry, I’ll be asleep.

I let it set on the counter for a long time. It had done its job much earlier. This is thick enough that I tore it up in bits with my hands and added that to 8 oz of water in the mixing bowl. I added 11 oz of the King Arthur Bread Flour. Roughly 65% hydration, and a 20% inoculation.

I kneaded it by (wet) hand for a few minutes, added the salt, knead a bit, rest, knead. 20 Minutes total because that’s all my love a kneading will allow.

I let it rise for about 5 hours, it’s more than doubled but doesn’t pass the touch test. Fearing another over proof, it went into the fridge. I no longer believe I know what I’m doing,

Turns out the wheels came of the axle one wheel at a time. Over proofed the bulk ferment, over proofed the final rise and I couldn’t get it out of the banneton which left a hunk of glop on the peel. The oven was heated so I baked it. It looked like wet ciabatta and as it turns it out, that’s exactly what it was. Not a lot of oven spring. Butt ugly on the outside since I didn’t bother to glaze or spritz with water or set up a steam pan.

Hours later, I cut into it. Big tunnels, holes of all sizes, shiny gluten webs. Tastes great and has some chew back on the inside. A nice ciabatta no question. Problem is that wasn’t what I wanted to make. It’s also a clue I can use.

My bakers arithmetic could have been erroneous and the recipe was wetter, [higher hydration %] than I calculated. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened. Maybe my wet hands knead in too much water. It doesn’t take much water to go from 65% to 70+.

I suspect the strong King Arthur’s Bread Flour (14.5% protein claimed) is helping me make these errors and to learn more. It sucks in the water so even a wet dough (65%) is reasonable to knead by hand. It’s also quicker to rise and easier to over proof if you miss the shorter window between just right and too much. The lower hydration preferment also masks what’s happening in the dough. That’s my theory this week.

I need to devise a test for one or maybe two of these variables. The single stiff preferment is easier than my other methods and I do like easy. I’ll keep that. I’ll keep the same flour and water oz in the dough and knead with wet hands. That’s all like this loaf of bread. What will I change then?

I’ll measure the bulk ferment. I know I did that before and the results weren’t what I wanted or expected. I’ll free form the loaf. If there’s a chance I’ll over proof and end up with ciabatta, lets make a free form ciabatta and not screw around with sticking to the banneton.

I’m surprised I haven’t entered this recipe. Inspired from “The Mexican Kitchen” (Rod Santana). I use cheap cuts of meat, canned tomatoes and it simmers as long as I want. Couple of hours doesn’t hurt.

I’ve used beef (like a chuck roast) or pork. Boneless country ribs (beef or pork) are inexpensive and flavorful. This feeds a bunch, but the left overs are just as good so I don’t mind the larger batch. Serve it in a bowl like a stew or use for tacos and burritos

1.5 to 3 lbs of meat.
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes or stewed tomatoes.
1 small bell pepper chopped (see notes)
1/2 onion, chopped. Maybe more.
1+ glove of garlic
1 tsp of peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seed
Water and salt as needed or stock or bullion or soupbase.

Cube the meat. 1/2 inch? Inch?. Doesn’t matter much. Brown in a bit of oil or lard in a skillet, Do it batches is your pan is small. Remove to a plate.

Lightly saute onions and pepper(s) in remaining fat (or add some or remove some fat). If I can find a can of tomatoes with Jalapeños, I don’t use fresh green bell pepper. It the can is plain tomatoes I use 2 (or more) jalapeños, seeded. instead of the bell pepper. If you don’t have a molcajete, add your chopped or minced garlic.

Meanwhile grind the peppercorns and cumin seed. This is the key to whole dish. I’ve ground black pepper in a bottle and cumin powder but the result will be just OK. If you have a molcajete, you would grind the garlic into the pepper and garlic and then add enough water to dissolve the paste. (1/4 C?)

Add the meat, tomatoes, spices and any water needed to almost cover. Bring to a simmer, cover and keep it at as low a simmer as you can for 1 to 2 hours. Adding water or removing the lid to adjust the amount of liquid. If you want taco or burrito fillings, break up the chunks of meat with the back of a spoon and let some water out. If needed one can thicken it with a slurry of cornstarch, flour or dried masa.

I make it sound complicated but it’s about as easy as cooking can get. You do have grind the cumin and black peppercorns in something. If you use a pot instead of a skillet you can raise the liquid level and add some dried chile powder or a chili paste and call it a bowl of red. (Chili colorado) Add potatoes, carrots, green beans or other veggies towards the end and I think you call it “tinga” (stew). Name’s are tricky, the cooking is simple.

The only important thing is to grind the cumin seed and peppercorns. There’s not a lot spices in Guisada so the ones used have to be done correctly. Oh right! Browning the meat (in small batches) is important. The last batch I made was with something labled ” Boneless Shoulder Country Style Pork Ribs”. That’s mega mart talk for “trimmings” with a confusing name. Cheap to start and I found mine in the section of the cooler for “sell by tomorrow” More markdowns than a GM SUV.

On a whim, I decided to make some yeast bread out of the King Arthur Bread Flour (not same as the KA All Purpose). Same basic loaf of bread as my sourdough experiments. 1.5lb loaf, 65% hydration.

The loaf looks OK but not for lack of attempts doing the wrong thing. My jar of Active Dry yeast is 18 months past expiration. I mixed the yeast into the 9.5oz of luke warm. I used about 2 tsp of the yeast, all of it.. Waited 10 minutes and mixed in the flour. Waited 10 minutes. It’s way too sticky. Did I l measure 10.5 oz like I would for sourdough or the 14.5 oz I intended to? I measured out 4 oz of flour for kneading in. I will use as much bench flour as it takes to get it to feel right. That took a lot of sticky kneading. I kneaded in the salt and most of the reserver flour.

Having clued in to the fact that I wasn’t paying attention to the flour amount, I consulted a recipe. I used almost double the amount of yeast that I should have. Sure enough, the first rise took about half the time according to the touch test. I shaped into a round and put in the banneton. No problems shaping, so the dough was ready., As one might expect, the second rise didn’t take long either.

It rose a little larger (wider) than a decent sourdough, but had less oven spring.

This experiment has been fatally flawed, I’m not sure I’ll learn anything other to write down what I intend to do before I attempt to do it and check the list. It might be edible. It doesn’t have a fully developed smell and I suspect the taste will be likewise. Too many mistakes.

On the upside. I used up all the old yeast in the jar so I’ll have a bit more room in the fridge. I have no intention of buying more when I make all the sourdough starter I want.

I had a sirloin steak defrosting and the latest loaf of bread cooling when, Emirl’s sausage show came on the tube. His bratwurst soup is pretty close to the Francesina stuff I’ve fallen in love with.

I have brat’s in the freezer and some of garden potatoes I need to use up and some celery and carrots aging in the fridge. I seem to have a crusty loaf of sourdough bread to soak up the soap. Might be better than a steak. I haven’t looked at the recipe at the Food TV website.

I had two frozen uncooked brats. I brought a light beer to a slow boil in a small pot and added the frozen brats and a bay leaf. Turned them occasionally while cutting up the onions, carrot (just one) and celery (1 or 2 small stalks) and slicing the onion. Table spoon of butter, saute the onions on med low until soft,Remove the brats from their pan and let cools. Add the carrots and celery. Saute for a few minutes, Add a shot or two of red wine and reduce. Add the simmered beer and brat juice to the veggies. Half tsp of dried thyme. Remove the bay leaf. Clean and chunk the potatoes and add. Add some “beef base” [bullion with water] or stock. Find the lowest simmer you can get. Slice the cooled brats into 1/4 inch rounds and add to the soup. Add more beer or beef stock as needed. Let the taters thicken the soup by slowing simmering until they break up and thicken the soup.

Looks to me like this will feed two.

It was OK. I don’t think I’ll do it again. The beer that the brat’s boiled in is pretty greasy and you need a quality beer which I didn’t use.

I’m using the King Arthur Bread Flour, see previous posts. 1 oz and 1 oz and bit of starter build, 3 and 3 preferment. 8 to 12 hours. Mix with 10.5 oz KA BF (their bread flour), 5.5 oz of water. Rest for 10 minutes. Add salt and knead for 5 minutes. Rest for 10, knead for 5 minutes. Squish it into a large measuring cup so I kind of know what a double would look like.

The kneaded dough is about 2C of volume, probably less. I started the bulk ferment at 4:30PM. It’s roughly 80F inside, maybe a bit less. At 5:30, it was a little two wet on top so I covered with a towel instead of the plastic. By 6:30, the dough is past the 3C mark. 7:15PM, I shaped and put into the banneton for the final rise. The seam seems to be holding together. 8:15. Rising very nicely but the temperature is dropping.
8:45. The touch test says it’s about ready to bake.

I did the whole steam dance (pan of hot water,) mist every 2 minutes three times. Water glaze. I say this all the time but it is a nice looking loaf of bread. Lots of oven spring, maybe a tiny bit more than I would expect. The goal was a nice skin, some chew back from the insides, irregular crumb. Holes but not tunnels. Chewy crust is a given. With the amount of oven spring there will be holes. I know that just by looking.

I think the gluten strands can be encouraged by slashing to the proper depth and letting it spread for a few minutes and maybe skip the misting. I tend to slash shallow and I did so on this loaf.

I did something I should have done years ago: I measured what 2C and 4C of water look like in my usual bowl. I was letting the bulk ferment triple or quadruple. Looks to me like I could be serious over proofing the first rise. If so, it’s going to be a big change in my technique. 2 prefements, the bulk ferment and fthe inal rise. and bake in 24 hours. The “force” is disturbed.

One more attempt on some sourdough using the King Arthur Bread Flour (KA BF). I’m less interested in blow outs and gluten strands. I went back to a previous test of some 12.5% flour that Impressed me at the time.. It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t vary a whole bunch of things at once.

In total, 15 oz of the KA BF, 9 oz of water gives me 60% hydration, a bit lower ration than normally do. It’s just arithmetic and time to get the 8 oz of “firm strarter” or “barm” in the reference above. The numbers I used: 1 oz of BF+1 oz of water, tiny bit of starter. Ferment. Add 1.5 0z if each. Ferment. Add 3 oz of BF, no water, knead and ferment. Make the dough with 9 of of BR, 6 oz of water, salt.

I used the no knead stretch and fold, 30 minutes between folds. After 4 folds there wasn’t a lot of stretching that could be done. I left it to finish the bulk ferment (first rise). That took several more hours and then I retarded the dough in the fridge in it’s covered bowl. Next day, I let it warm up for an hour or so, shaped it and put in the banneton to proof (second rise). When I checked a half hour later, the dough had ripped apart at the seam. I was not pleased. I reshaped it a bit. I can’t claim to have over worked the dough so I’m guessing that first rise was too long. It didn’t separate much after that it looked like a dough with trouble.

I skipped the whole steam and mist dance when baking it. A glaze of water was all. Good oven spring, the slashes are distinct and good looking. It’s probably a decent loaf of bread. I suspect I’m over proofing on the bulk ferment. Later, I did some volume measurements on that bowl with water and it looks like I’m letting it rise to 3 or 4 times. The bread tastes pretty good, no complaints there. Not as many holes as a 65% loaf though and chew is missing. Over proofed or not kneaded enough? This loaf will become bread crumbs or dumplings. It’s not a bad loaf, but….

I feel another experiment forming. Looking in the cabinets, I see an 8 qt measuring cup. My guess is my 24 oz dough is between 2 and 3 cups in volume after mixing. Since the raw ingredients are around 2 Cups of flour and 1 cup of water and 1 cup of starter (guessing) between 2 and 3 cups is reasonable. Here’s the plan.:

!’ll go back to my 1/1 + 3/3 preferments. 65% hydration on the dough. and this time after mixing and hand kneading, I’ll put in that big measuring cup, flatten the dough so the measurement is half way accurate and move to shaping and the final rise when doubled. Might be an hour, might be 4, might be 6. A smart person would even take take the dough out of the measuring cup and put it in my normal bowl to see what a double looks like before shaping.

It seems I never got around to experimenting with King Arthur’s “Bread Flour” back in February or March of 2006. It was on sale at the mega mart tonight so I bought some, 5lb’s for US$2.79. Twice the mega mart store brand but I’m performing science so cost be damned!. King Arthur’s Bread Flour is around 13.33% protein. More if you look at their website and trust them

I got so used to making my every day bread that I forgot what I had done with stronger flours. My comments were pretty positive. The goal is a near blowout and strands of gluten in the blow out and a chewy interior. I did achieve chewy back then using 11.5% and 12.5% percent flours. Makes sense.

I also remember that stronger flours need a tiny bit more water. To keep things nearly the same though, I’ll measure for a 65% final hydration. The preferments will be done on the stronger flour in the same pattern 1 oz of each and then 3 oz of each. That’s my standard to deviate from these days and since I’m running an experiment, I shouldn’t tweak too many variables. I’m pretty sure 70% or 80% on a strong flour may do the deed for meeting the goal. For the sake of science and continuity though I’ll do 65%. And knead the damn thing. I hate to knead but for science

Wow! There is a big difference in flours. The King Arthur Bread Flour, not the AP, is much different to work with. I really couldn’t knead the full twenty minutes. It definitely absorbs more water than what I was using before. I kneaded in a little more water with wet hands. Not because the dough was not sticky, because it wasn’t. This is going to be interesting.

Being summer, you’d think finding a warm spot to rise the dough would be easy. Nope, The last few nights have been in the mid 50F’s and the upper 80’s in the daytime. Inside a well insulated house, it’s very cool and and pleasant to me. Not so much for the dough. It’s been a long bulk ferment (first rise), going on 6 hours as I write this paragraph. It’s also true that this time I measured the salt and ended up adding more than I normally do when measuring by hand. That alone makes it a dodgy comparison to the two attempts in the previous post.

I’m so impressed with the stronger flour that I bought another 5lb bag on-sale at the meg-mart.

Results:

I don’t know where I went wrong but I had some difficulties. The dough was so wet it struck to the banneton which so it deflated a bit on to the peel. I make two slashes 10 minutes before baking. One straigjt down from the top and one at an angle, more horizontal. A minute before baking, I made a third slash horizontally . I had a devil of a time getting it off the peel since it had sucked up all the corn meal. I ended up a something more like a ciabatta. I’m guessing I over proofed the fnal rise.

Oven spring took over. It’s not a bad looking bread, just not what I wanted. Nothing conclusive was learned from the 3 different slashes. If I did over proof the loaf then , any hit of difference in the slashes would be meaningless any way. .

The dough didn’t feel wet when I was kneading, but it was wetter than it should have been during shaping so I may have over proofed the first rise too. I didn’t think so but it’s possible. More experimentation is required with this flour.

Tasting:

Holy mama! All the chew I wanted. Nice sized holes but no tunnels. The taste? Awesome! I no long care about about strands and slahes. The taste is enough.

[Updated Aug. 10, 2006]

I did an experiment in bread making. Not so much because I wanted the bread but because I wanted to see if I could get a certain affect. I got halfway close. I wanted two things; An “almost a blow out” and a visible gluten strands.

Here’s a picture of the full loaf . I did get the “almost exploded” effect I wanted. Good for me. If you look close, there are gluten strands. Not nearly as long and stringy as I wanted, but they are there. Standard disclaimers. I’m not a photographer. The pictures are 120KB and 140KB and take a while to download.

It’s not the prettiest loaf. That wasn’t the goal. Taste was not an goal for this experiment. It’s a pound and a half (of ingredients) 65% hydration, a 30 minute rest after hand mixing, hand kneaded for 10 minutes, a 10 minute rest, and another 10 minutes of hand kneading. Mega-mart brand bread flour which flirts near the 11.5% protein mark with some rounding errors on the label. Might be All Purpose, It might be bread flour. I’ve ranted here about that. It is cheap flour but I do like cheap if I’m playing around.

I also went for high heat. I ran the electric oven and pizza stone up to 550F and turned it down to 450F after the bread went in. I deliberately slashed the boule in a half moon to encourage the blow out effect.

Now for the “should haves’. It occurred to me that I could be over proofing on the first rise. I retarded when it doubled (my guess) instead of the triple I usually let happen. 3 hours versus 6 or more. I think was was too soon. Circumstances didn’t let me warm the dough out of the fridge before shaping. Stone cold shaping and into the bannetton for the final rise. That took 4 hours and then I got bored waiting. I should have let it warm in the bowl from the fridge for a few hours and then shape and final rise.

I should not have misted the bread with the spray bottle. I’m thinking later. Yes it allows the loaf to expand by moistening the outer surface, Spray the oven don’t spray the bread. A simple wash of water everywhere but the slash might do better for the effect I wanted. How do I know that? I can’t explain. It just sounds like reasonable things to do differently.

I might back the oven heat down in three stages 550-500-450.

For the curious it was a good tasting loaf of bread, good enough to stash in the freezer. A little denser than I prefer but thats likely to be the under proofing on the first rise.

[Aug. 9, 2006 - Second Attempt]

Net wisdom hints that a longer final rise may help prevent a blowout. Since I want a controlled blowout for these experiments, that would be a shorter final rise to me. That does make some sense but I can find facts to support any baking idea. I don’t get a big second rise. The longer the second rise the more likely the outer skin of the dough will toughen, and/or the gluten network will break down (dough rot). Neither of which is good for oven spring which is what I’m trying to direct.

I’ve a got a dough just about to finish the bulk fermentation (first rise). Same ingredients as the previous loaf. 8 oz of 100% starter, 10.5 oz of unbleached bread flour, 5.5 oz of, 1 tsp of salt. It’s rising much faster than the first one. Could be the temperature, or the salt was lighter (I hand measure the salt) or that the starter was more active or all of the above. I also kneaded a few minutes more, I think.

65% dough is a pain to knead by hand. Too wet and I don’t feel the love for hand kneading. If there are further experiments, it won’t include hand kneading. Twice in one week is twice too many.

[Aug 10, 2006]
I didn’t get a blowout. I did get a very nice looking loaf of bread though, so that’s some compensation. I pretty much did everything that I said I’d do differently. There’s a bit more oven spring but it’s evenly distributed.

Thinking back several years ago to one event, blowouts might happen when the dough is not slashed and the oven spring is strong so it blows out at the weak spot. I can think of several things to try and they all involve slashing which I’m not all that good with. I slash a minute before the loaf goes in. I could try 10 minutes before the loaf goes in. I could try also a different angle, more horizontal to create that lip or flap. I could try both with one loaf of bread.

King Arthur’s Bread flour in on sale this week (much more protein that their AP and more that the mega mart’s bread flour). I could also review my notes when I was playing with different bread flours.